Nicaragua

[Mark A. Mandel]

Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU> writes:
>>>

The sound spelled "g" in Spanish somewhat resembles the sound spelled
with the same letter in Dutch. Otherwise, the pronunciation of
Nicaragua in English is only trivially distinct from its pronunciation
in English. How does an English-speaker pronounce "Nicaragua" in such a
way as to sound pretentious?

<<<

In Latin American pronunciation the intervocalic /g/ is often fricativized,
and /gw/ often becomes /w/. The first vowel in "Nicaragua" is [i:] in
Spanish and [I] in English, the "a"s are [a] rather than schwa, and the /r/
is a tap rather than a retroflex liquid.

As for pretentious, see my previous e-mail.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]